I cannot harp about it enough as to how this pandemic has brought far too many miseries to too many people. One just has to skim through the social media or watch the daily news telecasts to feel almost overwhelmed by the heartbreaking stories that dominate our news reports. But underneath those tragic headlines are stories that bring us some glimmer of hope and a glimpse of admirable traits of our people.
It has been said that the worst of times could bring out the hero in ordinary citizens. In the crucible of the pandemic that has our nation at its grips, there are sterling qualities of the Filipino that have emerged and offer some measure of optimism for the future. We just need to look closely and comb through the various media platforms for news or stories that may not have the names of the famous or the powerful that typically populate our news headlines but nonetheless deserve as much space in the public discourse for their stories to be told.
*Ric (not his real name), a licensed commercial pilot, who, in a conversation with his family over dinner had things to say about the plight of the stranded OFWs (Overseas Filipino Worker) forced to stay under the flyover near the airport while waiting for their flights home. His father, a businessman involved in tire distribution, then broached the idea of chartering buses to take these stranded OFWs back to their home provinces. Earlier, Ric’s friends hosted a quiz show via ZOOM to raise funds and help feed the concerned OFWs and that gave him an idea of busing them home.
With his father’s blessing and commitment to bankroll Ric’s project, he tweeted a post asking for leads on available buses and netizens connected him to different people all willing to help him in this noble cause. It was also through his social media post that he was able to reach out to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) and together with the other volunteers, tried to map out a plan on how best to enable our stranded OFWs to reach home despite the various checkpoints and protocols that provincial/ city authorities have imposed on the routes. Mindful of these local government restrictions/ regulations as well as IATF rulings, Ric assured this writer that they are working on the full documentation and permits so that their “Biyaheng OFWs” could take on the road safely and strictly comply to all the rules and regulations.
Speaking of a helping hand, Yes Pinoy Foundation head and erstwhile actor DingDong Dantes, revealed in a webinar last week that he plans to launch a delivery app that will help some of his displaced colleagues in the entertainment industry earn a living as their industry has virtually shut down because of the COVID 19 virus. This project, aptly called Ding Dong Ph, according to Dantes, came about when his wife, actress Marian Rivera, who is a self-taught florist and runs a floral delivery business, encountered too many delivery mishaps that almost cost them to lose some of their clients. Together with a group of like-minded friends, they nurtured and developed this idea into an app and have banded themselves to form Doorbell Technologies that integrate their services from the workbench to their clients’ homes with a host of riders serving as the go-betweens. Dantes revealed that the initial riders they will employ will be from the industry where he came from as they are among of the most badly hit by this pandemic.
So, it is a ray of sunshine in these dark clouds of the pandemic that perhaps we as a people can come together to work and hope for a better tomorrow. Leadership and courage in these times are emerging in many places around us and these words by Willy Tee Ten, group president of AutoHub, in his LinkedIn post somehow resonates in all of us, and I quote: “Amidst this pandemic and everything that has been happening globally, I know He is looking after our welfare and He will protect us and guide us to where we all should be. The past months have been a realization of a lifetime for me. No matter how hard you were pushing yourself to its full capacity at work, no matter how focused you were in growing your business as you hold a huge responsibility of sustaining the livelihood of your people as well… NOTHING is PERMANENT and that EVERYTHING with just a blink of an eye could CHANGE, and could be taken away from you…Let’s help each other in these most trying times of our lives. Let us rebuild all that was lost. And move on to greater heights in the future altogether.”
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